Portland tribune vol 3 no. 20

JOE SMITH. Joe Smith must be set down as an extraordinary character, a prophet he-ro, as Carlyle might call him. He is one of this age, and in future history will rank with those, who in one way or another have stamp-ed their impress strongly on society.
Nothing can be more plebian, in seeming, than this Joe Smith. Little of dignity is there in his cognomen ; but few men in this age have done such deeds, and performed such apparent miracles. It is no small thing, in the blaze of the 19th century, to give to men a new revelation ; found a new religion, es-tablish new laws, institutions, and orders of architecture; to establish ecclesiastical, civil, and military jurisdiction; found colleges ; send out missionaries, and make proselytes in two hemispheres; yet all this has been done by Joe Smith, and that, against every sort of opposition, ridicule and persecution.—This sect has its martyrs, also ; and the spir-it in which they were imprisoned and mur-dered, in Missouri, does not appear to differ much from that which has attended religious persecutions in all ages of the world.
That Joe Smith, the founder of the Mor-mons, is a man of great talent, a deep think-er and eloquent speaker, and a man of great mental power, no one can doubt who has watched his career. That his followers are deceived, we all believe; but, should the in-herent corruptions of Mormonism fail to de-velops themselves sufficiently to convince its followers of their error, where will the thing end? A great military despotism is growing up in the fertile West, increasing, faster, in proportion, than the surrounding populations ; spreading its influence around, and marshaling multitudes tinder its banners causing serious alarm to every patriot.

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

JOE SMITH. Joe Smith must be set down as an extraordinary character, a prophet he-ro, as Carlyle might call him. He is one of this age, and in future history will rank with those, who in one way or another have stamp-ed their impress strongly on society.
Nothing can be more plebian, in seeming, than this Joe Smith. Little of dignity is there in his cognomen ; but few men in this age have done such deeds, and performed such apparent miracles. It is no small thing, in the blaze of the 19th century, to give to men a new revelation ; found a new religion, es-tablish new laws, institutions, and orders of architecture; to establish ecclesiastical, civil, and military jurisdiction; found colleges ; send out missionaries, and make proselytes in two hemispheres; yet all this has been done by Joe Smith, and that, against every sort of opposition, ridicule and persecution.—This sect has its martyrs, also ; and the spir-it in which they were imprisoned and mur-dered, in Missouri, does not appear to differ much from that which has attended religious persecutions in all ages of the world.
That Joe Smith, the founder of the Mor-mons, is a man of great talent, a deep think-er and eloquent speaker, and a man of great mental power, no one can doubt who has watched his career. That his followers are deceived, we all believe; but, should the in-herent corruptions of Mormonism fail to de-velops themselves sufficiently to convince its followers of their error, where will the thing end? A great military despotism is growing up in the fertile West, increasing, faster, in proportion, than the surrounding populations ; spreading its influence around, and marshaling multitudes tinder its banners causing serious alarm to every patriot.